Red Cross: 'Many' dead, injured in Nigeria attacks

KANO, Nigeria 
A coordinated series of bombings and attacks claimed by a radical Islamist sect left "many" dead and injured in northern Nigeria's largest city, a Nigerian Red Cross spokesman said Saturday, as gunfire still echoed around some areas of the sprawling city.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed over streets Saturday in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious hub in Nigeria's Muslim north. While witnesses of Friday's attack said they saw seven dead bodies, the scope of the assault claimed by a sect known as Boko Haram also suggests the death toll could rise.

In a statement issued late Friday, federal police spokesman Olusola Amore said attackers targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police.

"The police have commenced investigation and therefore use this medium to call for calm among the residents of Kano as police are doing their best to bring the situation under control," Amore said. Police are "appealing to members of the public to come forward with information on the identity and location of these hoodlums. Information given will be treated with utmost confidentiality."

Amore could not be immediately reached for comment Saturday. Whether anyone trusts the police remains another matter as security agencies remain unable to stop the increasingly bloody sectarian attacks by Boko Haram on Nigeria's weak central government. Earlier this week, the police acknowledged the alleged mastermind of a Catholic church bombing at Christmas escaped custody, yet another embarrassment for security agencies amid the violence.

Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said volunteers continued to offer first aid to the wounded, as well as evacuated those seriously injured to local hospitals. He said officials continued to collect corpses scattered around sites of the attacks.

Nwakpa said there had yet to be an estimate issued of toll of the attacks.

"From what they are saying, there are many involved, either wounded or dead," Nwakpa said.

The attacks began at 5 p.m. Friday, following afternoon prayers as workers began to leave their offices in the sprawling, dusty city, witnesses said.

A massive blast at a regional police headquarters shook cars miles (kilometers) away, an Associated Press reporter said. The blast came from a suicide car bomber who drove into the regional headquarters compound and detonated his explosives, deputy superintendent of police Aminu Ringim said. The explosion tore away the headquarters' roof and blew out the building's windows.

State authorities declared a 24-hour curfew late Friday as residents hid inside their homes amid the fighting.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists. He said the attack came as the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.